Skin Deep
by TruePlainHearts
Summary: Oneshot set after 1x07 when Ward returns from the suicide mission and Skye has trouble dealing with the fact that he almost didn't come back.


I was just re-watching old eps and this simply had to be written. This is set post 1x07 when Ward gets back from the suicide mission. Also I know that Ward's bunk isn't really next to Skye's but hey… I'm telling the story here : )

* * *

_Truth is… I was in good hands…_

Skye watched as her (thankfully still alive) SO climbed the stairs to the upper deck. His shoulders were slumped and his feet heavy, all evidence of the toll that his last mission had taken. They had so nearly not made it out and Ward knew it. It scared him more than usual because, unlike before, he had something to loose. He had Fitz, a friend, on the mission with him who he was desperate to protect. He had a team… a family. It made everything more surreal when he had to contemplate the idea that he wouldn't make it home.

After a while contemplating her relief, Skye too climbed the stairs and made her way to bunk. Curled up with a book, a new habit considering her inability to use any form of electronic devices unsupervised, Skye tried her best to put her hellish day behind her. It's not everyday that you are forced to hack into one of the most top secret servers in the world to save people you care about, consequences be damned. If she could loose herself for just one hour in alternate world of her novel, she was doing well. Of course this entire plan went pear shaped when muffled noises began filtering through the thin divider between her bunk and her SO's.

Skye lowered her book and listened carefully, soft groans followed by a sharp hiss had her instantly worried all over again. She sprang from her bed and rushed to Ward's door, banging furiously when she found it locked.

"Ward are you okay?" Skye asked, trying to keep her concern to an acceptable rookie-to-SO level. "Open up."

"Skye I'm fine" Ward hissed as the black divider slid open to reveal a very pale and very shirtless Agent Grant Ward.

"Oh…. I heard…" Skye stuttered, trying desperately to remember why she was standing in front of Ward's door.

She couldn't help as her gaze drifted slowly south.

"Are you bleeding!" Skye exclaimed as she noticed him holding a thick wad of gauze to his left side, just below his ribcage. The gauze was already showing through with spots of blood and Skye noticed again just how pale he looked.

"It's nothing." Ward said, turning back to the small pile of medical supplies on his bed. "I'm taking care of it."

"Like hell you are." Skye muttered under her breath, pushing them both back into Ward's room and sliding the door closed.

"Sit." Skye said in a short tone.

"Skye, I'm…" Ward began but Skye quickly cut him off in a tone far tenser than any she had directed at him before.

"I did not break 50 international laws to save you just so you could bleed to death in your damn bunk because you're too stubborn to ask for help. Now sit."

Ward wanted to ask what she meant by saving him but her tone clearly indicated that it wasn't the time for an interrogation. Skye was by no means a medical professional but she knew the basics. His wound was about 5 inches long across the side but didn't look deep enough for stitches.

"Knife?" Skye asked, her brow knitted in concentration as she wiped over the cut with iodine, trying her best to remember how annoyed she was with him as the muscles around the wound contracted and relaxed beneath her fingers.

"Yeah, just a graze." Ward answered, still unsure about what to say considering Skye's unusual mood and offering of help.

Skye then put 5 butterfly closures carefully along the length of the cut and pressed a dressing over it, her fingers much more delicate than Ward would have expected. Nursing skills wasn't exactly what he had expected from their resident hacker. After she was done, he slowly pulled a fresh shirt on, carefully trying to reopen his wound.

"If it is only shallow why are you so pale?" Skye asked, her face a mixture of anger simmering just below the surface of her detached clinical exterior.

"I have been in the field for 2 days, I haven't eaten that's all." Ward replied as he started to regret throwing away Fitz's sandwich. It really had smelled delicious, Maybe it would have been worth being mauled by attack dogs.

Skye just rolled her eyes and stomped out of his room.

Ward was beyond confused and went after her as quickly as could considering his injury and lack of blood sugar.

"Skye, what's wrong.?" He asked, following her into the small but well stocked kitchen on board the bus and waiting as she continued to give him the silent treatment.

He watched warily as she picked one ingredient out after another from the fridge, slamming them onto the kitchen counter with more force than was strictly necessary. Skye proceeded to make a sandwich, wielding the knife in such a way that made Ward wonder if he might have to patch up another wound before the night was out. She cut the sandwich in half with one particularly powerful slice of the knife and put it on a plate, sliding it across the marble counter towards him.

"Sit… eat." She said, not giving anything away as she immediately began packing up all the fillings.

Ward was about to say something about him being the one to give the orders as her S.O. but it really didn't seem like the time, considering the still close proximity of the knife. It also seemed like eating the sandwich fell into the "non-negotiable" column as well.

Unable to deny the growling of his stomach and slight lightheadedness any more, Ward sat down with a shrug of his shoulders and began to eat the sandwich.

As he ate, Skye's stormy expression stayed firmly in place and Ward was becoming more and more confused. Also, if he was being completely honest, her quiet rage scared the crap out of him and there wasn't much that frightened Grant Ward. As he finished the last bite, Skye was apparently satisfied that he would live another day and she stood and began stomping to her room without another word.

"Skye, what did I do?" Ward yelled after her desperately.

What he didn't expect was for her to whirl around to face him, her eyes filled with tears and a look of complete anguish etched on her every feature.

"You nearly died, Grant!" She yelled with a strained sob. "I was stuck in the Hub and they wouldn't tell me anything and I thought you were…"

Ward watched his rookie as she stopped short, unable to finish that one horrible thought.

"Hey," He said, quickly rising from his stool and thankfully feeling a lot steadier on his feet. He hesitantly reached out for her. "I'm fine. Everything is fine."

Skye pushed his hand away and gave his large frame an impressive shove.

"No it isn't because I was watching from the window of the bus. If we had been one minute later you would be dead."

Slowly Skye's histeria gave way to a hopeless sadness and Grant threw caution to the wind and crushed her to his chest, ignoring her half-hearted struggle to break free. Eventually she gave up fighting and collapsed into him. Ward just continued to stroke her hair and hold her tightly as her sobs became less violent and she began to regain some sort of composure.

Grant looked down to see Skye's tear soaked face looking up at him. She was biting her lip and looked more than a little embarrassed for her outburst.

"I'm… I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me." Skye said, still clutching Ward's now soaked black shirt.

"It's okay." Ward murmured softly against her hair. "This is a really stressful environment and you're all heart, Skye. It was bound to get to you."

Skye just gave a nervous chuckle of agreement which was cut short as Ward pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, giving her one last tight hug before releasing her.

"I um…." Skye trailed off, distracted by the completely uncharacteristically affectionate gesture. "I'm going to go wash up."

Skye half-heartedly gestured over her shoulder in the general direction of the shower.

"Sorry about your shirt." Skye said, pointing to the wet patch she had just been crying into.

"It's ok." Ward replied with a rare warm smile that made her heart flutter.

Without one last nervous Skye began walking towards the shower, contemplating all the ways she might have lost Grant today. She knew from the moment he dragged her into that interrogation room that there was something between them. The force of that something hadn't truly hit her until that day when she was forced to comtemplate living without him. In only a few short months he had turned everything she thought she knew on it's head and she was finally beginning to see why.

_"Oh, what the hell?" _Skye growled to herself, turning on her heel and striding back to Ward who had heard her from the entrance to his bunk and turned to look at her.

Skye walked with more purpose than she ever had, covering the seven… eight… nine paces back to a confused looking Ward and pulling him down to meet her lips. They crashed together as Skye threaded her fingers into his short dark hair, kissing him with all the passion she could muster. It took Ward a second to catch-up before he finally groaned and grasped her lower back, desperately pulling her closer. His hands splayed across the width of her back, making her feel impossibly small in his grasps but also infinitely powerful in the knowledge that he was groaning and panting because of her.

It could have been seconds or hours before they broke apart, gasping for air.

"You're emotional… We shouldn't." Ward groaned, resting his head against hers but still unable to release her. "I'm your S.O."

"Grant." Skye interrupted with a sly, satisfied smirk.

"You think too much." She said, before reclaiming his lips.

She ignored is meagre protests and attempts to push her away which soon gave way to his roaming and grasping hands, before she pushed him back into his bunk and slid the door shut behind them.

* * *

So this is how I wan't Skyeward to finally come together. Not necessarily exactly like this but I want a steep build of anger and tension that just results in an explosive kiss. They have all this frustration so you all know it would be totally hot. Anywhoo, this is my first Skyeward fic so please let me know what you thought of it.


End file.
